Triumph Over Evil

June 30, 2008 — Yeap Chee Seng

6 Such people will not be overcome by evil. Those who are righteous will be long remembered.
7 They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.
8 They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly.
Psalm 112:6-8 (NLT)

Welcome to the sixth installment of the study of Psalm 112. In this article, we shall study on the characteristics of the godly when faced with evil in their lives.

Let me get this straight. While evil has no right to come into our lives, it does not mean that it won’t. Here is an example. If you are living in your own house, you should realize that the house and everything in it belongs to you and your family. No one has the right to go in and take anything without proper consent from the legal owner who happens to be you. Yet, you will still want to lock your doors. Why? You must have known that there are people out there who do not respect your rights. We call them thieves. They will get into our houses and take anything they want. We install locks and security systems to protect our rights against those who seek to violate them.

Likewise for the evils that happen in our lives. Satan is a thief. He knows he has no more right to oppress us. Yet that will not stop him from doing so. It is up to us, the legal owners of the blessings God has for us to defend our rights. It is our responsibility to install the equivalent of locks and security systems to protect our rights. How shall we do that? The above verses will tell us how.

The first part of Verse 6 tells us that we will not be overcome by evil. The bad news here is it implies evil will happen in our lives. If you think that being a Christian will cause you to be protected from any form of troubles in your lives, you are still in living in fantasy. It is time to wake up and face the real world. Throughout the Bible, believers faced challenges in their lives. The apostles faced persecutions from the religious people. King David lived in caves before he became king. Moses had to run like a refugee before he was in position to lead his people out of Egypt. Joseph experienced slavery and imprisonment before he became rich and powerful in Egypt.

So, the bottom line is, the greater your future is, the more intense Satan is going to attack you, the more evil or challenges you are going to face. However, that is not the end. God has promised that we will not be overcome by evil. In God’s mind, he has given to us everything we need to overcome the evils in our lives. All we need to do is to trust in him and face our challenges boldly. No matter how difficult or impossible you situation is screaming at you now, God has decided that you are going to win. What is your choice? Are you going to believe in what the situation says or will you choose to believe in what God says? Your decision will determine the outcome of your situation.

If you are serious about winning, just remember what God says, you will not be overcome by evil. You are destined by God to win.

The second part of the same verse tells us that those who are righteous will be long remembered. This means our faith in God will leave a long lasting legacy. The story of you overcoming your bad situations through your faith will be repeated for generations to come. Your descendents will remember you proudly as a conqueror, who has defeated the negative circumstances with your faith. You will be their inspiration. Don’t you think this is the best gift you can give to your descendents?

Verse 7 tells us that do not fear bad news and we confidently trust the Lord to care for us. Again, the bad news is, we will have bad news but the good news is our God is greater than the bad news. So, we confidently trust the Lord to care for us.

The world we live in today is full of bad news. Most people responded by organizing pity parties and talk negative. We, Christians are different. We have a God who loves us and cares for us. Our complete trust in him helps us not only to survive but to triumph over bad news that comes to us. Through him, we are able to prosper even in the worst recession and be healthy in the worst plague. All we need to remind ourselves is our God is greater than the bad news.

Verse 8 tells us about our behavior when we face our foes. We confident and fearless and can face our foes triumphantly. We are confident and fearless because we have believed beyond doubt that our God is always with us and he is greater than everything our enemies can throw at us. There is absolutely no reason for us to be afraid of them. We shall triumph over them. They are the ones who should be afraid.

Knowing this truth gives me the confidence to live my life boldly. If Satan is to appear before me with his scariest costume and roar, I will not run and scream like the characters in horror movies. Instead I will look into his eyes and say, “Is this the best you can do, Satan? Know your own position. As the son of God, I outrank you and have greater power than you. I am going to get you, take back everything you have stolen from me and demand heavy war reparations from you. I am your greatest nightmare and I am going to make your life a living hell. You don’t have to wait until Judgment Day to experience hell. Run Satan run. You can run but you can never hide.”

Then I imagine Satan scream in fear and run as fast as he could. I like being a Christian.